


Looks Just Like the Sun

by destronomics



Category: Iron Man (2008)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-25
Updated: 2009-11-25
Packaged: 2017-10-03 17:11:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/destronomics/pseuds/destronomics
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They find his body in the desert four months later. (AU, Character Death)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Looks Just Like the Sun

They find his body in the desert four months later. He tells her that the dry heat had preserved most of him, except in this case "preserved" meant a human shaped raisin recognizable only by the tuft of his stupid facial hair. Pepper had call it that once, when Tony had been alive and more than a little deserving of their scorn.

He doesn't blame her for not viewing the body, doesn't blame her for meticulously organizing the funeral but not actually showing up. He doesn't tell her she shouldn't feel bad. He doesn't tell her it wouldn't really have mattered, that they buried sand bags instead of a person, that she didn't miss mourning over anything real, just the idea of it.

He doesn't blame her because he is too busy blaming himself for, for, for--

Drinking from Tony's ridiculously expensive scotch usually kills that particular train of thought. Tony had left it to him in his will, under the guideline that Jim would only drink it in emergencies. On the list Tony so helpfully provided, "emergencies" would include: breakfast, lunch, dinner, afternoon snacks and "damn near everything in between."

Pepper had explained, one night (when the grieving process was still in its "getting completely smashed" phase) that they had gone through four different, increasingly befuddled lawyers before anyone would actually take Tony seriously.

"That's it?"

Jim remembers Pepper curling against his shoulder when she laughed at his lack of surprise, remembers that she had been very, very warm. "I guess it wasn't as bad as when he tried to work in a 'death by malfunctioning robot' clause into the life insurance policy."

And Jim remembers his own sudden bark of laughter; remembers it feeling more good than guilty; remembers cocking it up with: "Tony really manages to put things into perspective, doesn't he?"

"He does. He did. He--" But she didn't finish; even tried for a smile before giving up and just pressing a hand to her mouth and letting her eyes go a little wide. He remembers moving her hand away, putting one of his own against the knee closest to him, remembers leaning in and pressing his lips against hers.

It became something like a habit, then.

So they see each other more now that Tony is dead, and in rare, stupid moments sometimes Jim Rhodes really, really wishes he didn't know how good Pepper Potts looked naked and groggy in the morning: desperate for coffee and a bagel and _Oh god where is my blackberry?_; hates Tony a little for giving them that chance.

**

They had only managed to find the body because the bright, blinking beacon that seemed to have composed half of what was left of Tony's chest. It had horrified Jim, seeing that thing, seeing what was left of his friend all curled in on itself, brittle and raw, like he had been abducted by aliens instead of terrorists, experimented on and left to rot.

It took two months of careful study to figure out what the thing even was. No one wanted to touch it, afraid that the readings were wrong, that the unbelievable amount of energy it put out came with a price still unquantifiable by current technology.

No one knew where it came from, and no one could believe Tony could do something like this on his own. No one could argue with Jim when he pointed out that the man had been outfitting America's army almost single-handedly for a decade now, give Tony some credit, but. But. Still. It was hard to believe Tony had all this in him. It was hard to imagine--

Jim didn't think they wanted to, it probably made them feel small.

It didn't stop the engineers back on base from almost wetting themselves when they saw what had been left of Tony, though, they kept sneaking peeks when they thought Jim wasn't looking. It was disconcerting, the way their jaws went a little slack when they saw the readings, when they finally saw the blue glow under the sheet for themselves. It was a little obscene.

Jim wanted to blame them, but he couldn't: even dead, no one could tear their eyes away from Tony Stark.

And yeah, Jim is pretty sure Tony would have been right there with them, drooling at the prospect of pulling that thing out of his own damn body, fighting over scraps of the unknown, terribly fascinating tech. He could picture it: that very image of Tony, bent over his own body, running his fingers along the seam of ruined flesh and gleaming metal, in awe and a little in love with the promise of something new to pick apart, something to improve.

Jim usually wakes up before Tony can speak, but sometimes it's not soon enough, and Tony looks up and grins and says "God, can you think of all the things we could do with this?" And Jim can, that's the worst part, he really can. So many ways to change the world and Tony couldn't even stick around to gloat.

No one _wanted_ to believe Tony had worked it out alone, that one man _could_. It made Jim a little angry.

Baby steps, Pepper said, the others couldn't really be blamed: not everyone had had the chance to see Tony when he worked, just how good he was when he had a reason to focus. Not everyone had been as lucky as them.

One thing they could be sure of, one thing they could count on, Tony's death was going to _count_ for something.

Obadiah Stane would make sure of it, Jim had his promise. Even dead, Tony Stark could always count on his friends. Even dead, Tony Stark was going to change the world.

**Author's Note:**

> **A/N**: For [](http://amonitrate.livejournal.com/profile)[**amonitrate**](http://amonitrate.livejournal.com/)'s Halloween ficathon; unbetad.


End file.
